Steam Sale 2015--Less Flash Doesn't Necessarily Mean Less Cash

I actually thought that this Steam Sale might be the one where I don't purchase anything.  Other than the whole Christmas day caching crisis, the Winter Sale has been a muted affair.  Rather than offering a bunch of flash sales with looming timers the sale this year rewards players for exploring their discovery queues.  For simply scrolling through your discovery queue you are rewarded with three free trading cards every day.  If you're not into the whole virtual trading card thing you will probably ignore this.  One thing to remember is that these cards can be sold immediately for a few cents (or, if you're lucky enough to get a foil card, almost $.20!  That's a veritable windfall in trading card terms).  You could possibly rack up enough cash to buy a really cheap game.  Of course the real reason why they want you to explore your discovery queue is so that you'll spend non-virtual moola.  My queue explorations led me to make my first Winter Sale purchases--I'm not sure how they're going to pan out.  I will say that using my discovery queue made me look at games that I would never have found.  The strategy of eliminating the timers and flash sales may pay off for Steam...

My purchases thus far have included Legend of Grimrock, Legend of Grimrock 2 (these two games were bundled together for $5.99--super cheap), Hand of Fate, The Wolf Among Us, and This War of Mine.  I think there are some winners in the group and possibly some duds (for me personally.  This doesn't mean that others might not enjoy them).

Legend of Grimrock is a dungeon exploration game similar to those from the early golden days of PC gaming.  It harkens back to the good ol' days when you sat by the computer with graph paper and attempted to figure out a map for the area (there's even a difficulty where you can choose this option) and fought off any enemies in your path.  It's not extremely flashy but it is challenging.  Your little band of four characters doesn't feel like a powerhouse group that slays freely and it's often a good idea to use your wits and the environment to get rid of any unwanted enemies.  I'm not so sure that the bundle was a good idea...I'm going to save it for later.

In Hand of Fate you face off against the enigmatic dealer...and your own choices.

The highlight of my purchases has been Hand of Fate.  It's a sort of card game that requires a lot of luck and skill.  There is a story mode that allows you to progress through a set of different enemies who unlock special powerups that make your deck more powerful.  As you progress and unlock more cards and face more encounters they get more challenging.  There is a minor combat aspect to the game that requires you to fight and defeat different enemies.  You have to focus on managing your resources, gaining more powerful gear, and simply choosing the right path.  Some encounters require you to choose from "success" or "failure" cards which will either reward or punish you.  Each new step on your journey is different.  The first few levels were relatively easy but now things have gotten a lot harder.  There's also an endless mode that lets you play until your character meets it's end.  This game is a pleasant surprise!

I haven't started up The Wolf Among Us or This War of Mine yet.  I've read nothing but positive praise for both of them and am looking forward to playing them.  The really weird thing is that even though I've purchased all these games, I'm really wanting to go back and play some of my old gems--I've started up a new campaign in The Witcher and feel the magic that was 2008.

The Steam Winter Sale is winding down.  Get your hot deals while you can!

Panic at the Disco.....er, I mean Steam Sale!

If you've been blithely enjoying your holidays or residing under a dark, dark rock then you probably haven't heard about the recent *possible* data breach on Steam.  Don't panic!  It may not be as bad as it seems (or it might, but chances are we'll never really know).

Here are some basic facts that I've gathered in my own personal panic as I firmly believed that my Steam library was about to be decimated by strangers:

1.) On Christmas day around noon-ish PDT some users reported that when clicking on items on the store or community pages that Steam was re-directing them to the account details page of other random users. They were able to do this through the Steam dekstop/mobile clients as well as through browsers.  According to Steam the issue lasted for less than an hour.

2.) There's a chance that information such as your Steam wallet funds, e-mail address, partial phone number (last 4 digits), address, and last 2 digits of your credit card number (or PayPal info, but I don't use PayPal) were visible.

3.) I have read conflicting reports about what people were actually able to do on the random account details page.  Some people reported that when they tried to click on something on the random pages that they were simply re-directed to another random account detail page.  Others reported that they were actually able to change information (like phone numbers) on the account page.  Steam has reported that there hasn't been any unauthorized account actions.

4.) Steam is saying that they weren't hacked or DDoS'd and all the shenanigans were caused by a "caching issue."  It's probably North Korea...trying to steal our hot winter gaming deals.

Frustratingly, information from Valve/Steam has been trickling out.  The timing of this whole event has been horrid--right in the middle of a major holiday, right in the middle of a huge sale event, and right in the middle of people enjoying their vacations.  I only learned of it from browsing my Facebook newsfeed and seeing a panic-y article from Kotaku.  Hopefully after the holidays are over we will hear more.  Steam isn't known for their stellar customer service and any discussions related to the "event" in the Steam community were quickly quashed by moderators.  Some people were trying to spend gift cards or were in the middle of purchasing something when the problems started.  I hope those people don't lose their funds and are able to recover anything they might have lost in the fiasco.

I suppose the moral of this whole situation is that extra security goes a long way.  Although I initially was worried about the possibility of anything untoward happening to my Steam account (or personal info!), I felt reassured by the fact that I have enabled two factor authentication.  I would highly encourage others to do the same thing.  You don't need a Smartphone and can have authentication codes sent via e-mail.  It's another step to take when logging in, but in situations like this it is well worth the very minor added step.

Just to be safe I would keep an eye on my credit card/PayPal transactions.  There still isn't much information about the scope of the issue and how many accounts were actually exposed.

UPDATE 12/30/15:
Valve finally released an official statement about what happened.  It's not glaring on the front page of Steam, but it's reassuring that they finally spoke up (read it here).  34,000 accounts might have been exposed.  That seems like a relatively small number when compared to the 125 million estimated Steam accounts.  I haven't had many problems with Steam before or after this issue, but some users have complained about difficulties with many different aspects of the service during the holiday sale.  I'm still going to be watching my credit card statements like a hawk.

Happy Holidays!

The holiday season is here and it's time to throw the ol' Yule Log on the fire and enjoy some relaxing game time.  As for me, I'm doing a lot of reflecting about some of the games I'm currently playing and some that I've played in the recent past.  Yup, I couldn't even cobble together thoughts about one game since I've been jumping back and forth between several games.


The Winter Steam Sale
That magical time of year where oodles of great games go on sale has finally arrived...but on a much less flashy scale.  Steam sales of times past have been huge events filled with strange mini-games, flash sales, and pressure to buy games that we know we'll never play (just admit it!).  Why the changes?  There was always something exciting about Steam sales.  The addition of all the goofy little competitions and mini-games made them feel like a real event.  I'm not sure exactly how I feel about the change.  Part of me wants to celebrate the move away from using gimmicky psychological tricks (like the countdown timers) to pressure people to buy games.  On the other hand, there's this whole other part of me that liked the excitement of getting what felt like a great deal.  So far I haven't bought anything and haven't really felt pressured to buy anything.  I still explore my discovery queue every day to get my three free trading cards but this sale just feels a lot different...much more low-key.

Diablo III--Season 4
I'm not a hardcore Diablo player but I really appreciate the fact that when I do decide to play that there is always something new or interesting.  About a week ago I looked into the new (but almost over) season of Diablo III.  After months of not playing I found a reason to renew my adventures and level a new seasonal hero.  I enjoyed the fact that there were goals associated with your advancement through the season that ended with the reward of a portrait frame and pet (I'm such a nerd for pets--seriously, if there's a pet involved I will accomplish those goals).  The goals were highly obtainable, even for someone like me who started very late in the season.  I also noticed some minor changes to how some things worked--there's a whole new zone available in Adventure Mode that features a unique crafting item, Kanai's Cube.  The cube allows players to do several very useful things like extracting special powers from legendary items and allowing them to be placed on your current gear or using accumulated crafting materials to turn rare items into legendary items.  The cube is a creative way to address many of the items that become useless as players advance through adventure mode.

Kanai's Cube features several unique recipes.

It really feels like nephalem rifts have become a lot less important and bounties are more of the focus.  Kanai's Cube requires special legendary crafting materials that are found in the horadric caches that are rewarded upon completion of a string of bounties.  These crafting items are also required to craft the many legendary items available to the blacksmith.  I also noticed that the horadric caches seem to drop a lot of blacksmithing and jewelcrafting plans.  This is a nice change and allows set pieces and individual legendaries to become much more accessible.

Even though Diablo III threatens to give me a raging case of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome I still find myself clicking away.  I've always been a fan of Blizzard games and I am impressed with the way that they have kept a 2-3 year old game fresh.  Season 4 ends on December 30th and Season 5, which starts on January 15th, promises a new zone and other enjoyable features.

Santa has had enough.

Viscera Cleanup Detail:  Santa's Rampage
Seasonal twists on games always make me laugh.  The space janitorial sim Viscera Cleanup Detail features a not-so-jolly holiday map that requires players to cleanup after Santa has had some sort of mental breakdown.  The resultant gore includes a number of slain elves and some unfortunate reindeer.  The level is strewn with presents, toy guns, TNT, molotov cocktails, and clear evidence that Santa had been drinking off the stresses of delivering presents to all the children on Earth.  Although the map is relatively small it's an entertaining seasonal distraction.

The Witcher 3:  Making you feel bad for horrible characters.
My personal game of the year pick would be The Witcher 3:  Wild Hunt.  I was captivated almost every minute I played and found the story options refreshing from your rote good/bad choices.  The world of The Witcher 3 is very rarely black or white and is more frequently a really dark shade of grey.  I found this most noticeable in the many characters who populate the game.  The Bloody Baron is the best example of this dynamic.  The guy is a lousy drunkard who beats his pregnant wife until she miscarries.  He leads a band of soldiers with questionable ethics who are looting the war-torn countryside bare...but he also has a giving heart and takes care of Ciri when she shows up wounded at his castle.  You really want to hate the guy but he's just so....human.  He's not perfect and that's what makes him a great character.

The most recent DLC features another character, Olgierd von Everec, who is very similar to the Baron.  Olgierd seems like an alright guy--the leader of a pack of bandits, but with some morals--very Robin Hood-esque.  It's only as you progress through the story that you realize there's much more to his story.  Eventually you learn that he's made a deal with the veritable devil (Gaunter O' Dimm, the man of glass) in an effort to restore his family's wealth and name.  The story leads you through the tragic tale of his beautiful wife who died from a broken heart.  But, like the Baron, he's just a man who made a lot of bad choices.

Here's wishing everyone out there a happy holiday season.  I hope it finds you spending time with loved ones...and maybe some light gaming :)

Game Dev Tycoon--The Last of my Steam winter sale purchases.

Happy New Year!  I predict that 2015 will be filled with more great (and not so great games).  The Steam sale is winding down with only two more days left.  You can still get many great games for low (or lower) prices.  I've been writing about my purchases and only have one left that I haven't written about yet.  I haven't quite finished a full playthrough, but I'm enjoying Game Dev Tycoon.

Game Dev Tycoon is an indie game that recreates the history of gaming.  Your goal is to start a small game development company and grow it into a mega-gaming company.  The early parts of the game have you working alone in your garage creating small games.  As you create games you rack up points for design and technology (I still haven't really figured out how this is calculated).  Part of the game is figuring out which genre/topic combinations work best.  So you want to make a casual zombie game?  Maybe not the best combo, but go for it!  After you've picked your genre and topic you use a simple slider system to decide which design elements are going to go into your game.  This also involves some logic--better sound is more important in a music based game than in an RPG.  Your design choices influence the success of the game you create and part of the puzzle is figuring out which aspects of game design work best for certain types of games.

Once you've racked up enough technology points you can perform research and unlock special features to create your own gaming engine.  At first the engines are rather simple with only a few choices about graphics, sound, and gameplay.  As you progress you can add even more features to your engine to make it even better--3D graphics, cloud saves, AI companions, etc.  If you have enough success and make some cash you are given the option to move up to a bigger office and hire employees.  Your employees are instrumental in helping you design bigger, better games.

Fullmertronics.  Working hard on making great pirate games.

I've reached the point where I have six employees working for me and a fairly large fanbase.  Games cost millions of dollars to design and I feel the pressure of constantly trying to make them better to keep up with the rapidly changing technology.  I now have the option of creating large games across many platforms.  My most successful games have been pirate themed action/adventure series known as "Captain's Booty."  The sequel "Captain's Booty 2:  Bootylicious" also did quite well.  I guess my company has found it's niche.

Some people might not find Game Dev Tycoon to be that exciting.  Much of the game is looking at charts and graphs--a fairly typical management game.  I am enjoying the decision making aspect of this game.  It has been fun to see how my choices turn out--sometimes a game I think is going to be a total success is a complete flop.  If you like management games you might enjoy Game Dev Tycoon and can pick it up for low price.  It's still in early access, but is polished enough to be quite enjoyable.

Premature Buyers Remorse

Last year I made the regrettable decision of buying a game that many people love, but which I just cannot get excited about, Spelunky.  The Steam sale just has a way of making me buy games that are on the fringes of my personal preferences--but hey, they're usually under $3.  I've bought ridiculous things for much more than that and regretted it.

Yesterday I decided to check out one of the new games I had snatched up for $1.99.  You're probably thinking--"what can you expect from a game that cost $1.99?"  This is totally what I thought.  Well, we're both wrong.  My initial explorations into the world of Terraria were frustrating.  I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to do and was eaten by hostile zombies in an alarmingly quick fashion.  I snorted with derision at this stupid game and thought I would resign it to Spelunky status as a game that sits in my Steam library and makes me cringe at my purchase.  Rather than doing that, I decided to look up some beginners guides and figure out what I was supposed to be doing.  Now, I feel that I've gotten a great bargain on an oddly fun game.

Terraria is a sandbox game with RPG elements.  It's also another of those modern games with an old-school pixelated feel.  (I know many people who are really tired of this throwback theme in gaming.  I don't mind it if the games are fun).  You start off by creating your little pixelated character and can customize features like your hair, shirt, pants, and shoe color.  After you have done that you are given the choice of what size world you want to spawn.  I opted for small since it was my first time playing.  You're then spawned in this randomly generated world.  I wandered around aimlessly until I ran into an NPC named Kyle who recommended that I build a house before it got dark.  Psshhh....what do you know Kyle?  The sun sank and the world grew dark and sadly Kyle was right--zombies made quick work of my little pixelated character named Jill.

Jill's house.  It's partially made of candy canes.

I respawned and luckily there were no zombies near my location.  I relocated Kyle and he again informed me that I should build a house and that chopping down trees would be a good idea.  Wielding my copper axe I hacked down a few trees and cobbled together a very pathetic excuse for a house--a semi-square of wood blocks with no doors in which I was trapped.  I listened as the zombies pounded on the walls trying to munch on poor Jill's pixels.  Now what?  I fumbled with my iPad and read some more of the beginners guide while the zombies continued their relentless assault on my "house."  I needed to build a crafting table to be able to build more complex items.  Hey, I've got enough wood!  Jill quickly created a crafting table and a large list of craftable items popped up.  A few minutes later the sun came up and the zombies finally retreated.  Jill ventured outdoors to continue her quest to deforest the world.

It took me a little while to figure out the basics of Terraria.  There is really very little in the form of a tutorial--Kyle gives you some handy hints, but you're on your own to figure much of it out.  I would highly recommend finding a good guide and having it handy for reference.  This game is about exploration, crafting, and getting loot.  There is no defined goal or story to follow.  Usually these types of games are a huge turn-off for me, but after several hours of mining, building, and slaying slimes I am really enjoying Terraria.  My $1,99 was well spent after all!